Brown scales back employee health care hike

EMILY PAINE, THE MORNING CALL

EMILY PAINE, THE MORNING CALL

Of The Morning Call

Brown scales back employee health care hike

After months of holding firm to his unpopular health insurance initiative, Northampton County Executive John Brown says he will introduce changes that will spare employees the full blow of the plan next year.

Brown is recommending the county purchase gap insurance that will significantly reduce employees' out-of-pocket maximums, which were slated for a hike under Brown's new plan requiring employees to pick up more of their health care costs.

That plan was expectedly unpopular with employees and some members of council, who said Brown's proposed changes were too much, too fast.

Individual employees pay an annual deductible of $250 a year, while the deductible for a family is $500. Those costs would double with Brown's changes. Employees would also pick up a 10 percent co-insurance, with a $6,600 out-of-pocket-maximum for individuals and $13,300 for families, and see higher co-pays and prescription costs.

His changes would reduce those maximums to $2,600 for an individual, and $5,200 for a family.

His original plan sparked an outcry from employees, who argued the out-of-pocket costs would cannibalize their pay, and in some cases, bankrupt them.

County Council has no authority to override Brown, but had urged him to roll back the proposal and ease the employees into higher contributions. Led by Democratic Councilman Lamont McClure, council tried to force Brown to negotiate with unions by blocking votes on nonessential legislation.

Council members lifted the brief legislative logjam after Brown publicly called their actions craven and irresponsible, and argued they were interfering with important business, namely $30 million in financing for electronic medical upgrades at St. Luke's University Health Network.

They had suggested Brown reduce the co-insurance cap to $500.

Brown now says he will introduce a new layer of insurance that will reduce employees' potential out-of-pocket costs to $2,600 for an individual and $5,200 for a family.

That gap insurance, which will cost the county about $100,000, will cover the difference between $2,600 and $6,600 for an individual and between $5,200 and $13,200 for a family. The county pays costs over and above the gap insurance limit until a stop-loss plan kicks in.

Brown said the increased deductibles, estimated to save the county $860,000, will cover the cost of the new supplemental insurance. It's unclear what effect the other changes will have on the county, which is self-insured. Brown did not include any savings in his proposed 2015 budget.

"We're taking $100,000 of that difference and giving it back to the employees," he said, adding he would have liked to roll out the gap insurance with the other proposed changes, but it took several months to finalize.

The contract is initially for one year, Brown said. "We'll look at 2016 when the time comes."

McClure remains disappointed with what he called a Band-Aid.

"The fact remains that wages are still frozen, and it's only for one year. And after the expiration of the one year our employees are once again going to be exposed potentially to ruinous medical bills," he said.

For a single mother making $30,000 or less, McClure added, even $5,000 can be catastrophic.